This Can Be Your Best Holiday, If You Want It to Be!

Like many of you, I had the pleasure of seeing the movie “The Best Man Holiday”. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me think about how I handle life’s ups and downs.

In truth, you can only really tell if you have faith when your life is challenged. When that happens, I ask you, as that movie prompted us, will you still believe? Will you still trust God?

“As a man thinketh, so is he”

– Proverbs 23:7

As we enter into the holiday season, for many it will not be a season of cheer. But regardless of your circumstances, I submit that how you think and feel about this season is only a matter of perspective.

Consider the story of the chained elephant, where this huge creature was held in place by a chain around one leg attached to a stake in the ground. Why doesn’t this giant animal simply tear the stake out of the ground or break the chain? Because as a baby elephant, he tried and tried to break free, but soon learned that it was futile, so he gave up. It is now in his head that he cannot get free, that being chained is his destiny. Although the full-grown elephant could easily break free, he doesn’t, because he doesn’t believe that he can. His mind has been trained to believe that when he is chained, he can’t get away.

And so it is with the human mind and limiting beliefs. What does this mean? It means that if you think negatively, you’ll get negative results, and if you believe you are not capable of achieving a certain result, then your mind will prove you right! The only conclusion that makes sense, then, is this: If you believe you deserve something better, think something better. And that, quite simply, is the essence of how the change process begins: to replace limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs.

Have you ever met someone who has been locked up in prison for a long time? Sometimes when they get free and come back into society, it is overwhelming. As much as they wanted to get out of jail, there is a sense of safety there. There’s a routine of when to get up, eat, go to sleep and more. They are confined in a small space, and there is security in more ways than one.

It may sound strange, but it is human nature to feel a sense of safety when you know what to expect. You may not like being in jail, being at your job and even being in your abusive relationship. But you stay or go back because it’s easier for you to handle the known versus the unknown.

That’s why you can free an animal – or a human being – physically, and unless there is a mindset change, unless they’ve evolved, are willing to step out on faith and flow in the unknown, run in the pasture of no walls or limitations, they will never be totally free.

How and what we think determines what holds us back or pushes us forward. If you think you can’t, then you can’t. Or be honest: Maybe you really don’t want to. Whatever the truth is, that’s what you need to own. Because when your mind is free, regardless of your circumstances, no one can truly hold you back.

How does what’s going on inside of your head and heart play out into your life? Are you in touch with yourself? Are you aware of how powerful your thoughts are and how they manifest into what you want?

Who or what influences your thoughts? The books you read, the people you listen to, what you watch on television, the friends you have and many more variables. How deliberately are you managing what you allow to influence you?